Category: History

Mrs. Sara B. Schaeffer was born in Galena, Ohio in 1857 but spent most of her life in Minnesota.

She was the widow of Major Charles M. Schaeffer (died 1900) who served in the Spanish American War.

During the Spanish American War, Mrs. Schaeffer accompanied her husband to the battlefield where she was known as “The Mother of the Fourteenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry” which was the infantry in which her husband commanded a battalion. She headed the emergency nursing station for the Fourteenth Minnesota and was much loved by the soldiers she cared for.

Upon the death of her husband, Mrs. Schaeffer became more deeply involved in church, civic, and women’s organizations where she made many friends. When she became interested in becoming Police Matron, her friends were concerned that she would not have the strength for the work so soon after her husband’s death. She was in a fragile state indeed but the work gave her purpose and as a result she was able to regain her health and sense of well-being.

Mrs. Schaeffer was appointed by Mayor A. A. Ames to the role of Minneapolis Police Matron in 1901 at the salary of $726 per year. She served at the City Jail, located on the top floor of the Minneapolis City Hall for 27 years under 11 different police chiefs. She lived in a two-room suite adjacent to the women’s cells for most of that time.

When Mrs. Schaeffer began her service, before the advent of policewomen and before the time of women patrol officers, the Police Matron was responsible for all interactions with women and juveniles from the time they were detained by officers until their release from the City Jail. She also had responsibility for lost and neglected children and abandoned wives.

After 1914, when the Minneapolis Police Department began to hire policewomen, Mrs. Schaeffer was relieved of some of her street responsibilities and was able focus her work on helping women and juveniles during during their time in the City Jail and during their court appearances. It is estimated that by the end of her career she had worked with approximately 100,000 women, boys, and girls.

When Mrs. Schaeffer joined the Minneapolis Police Department, women were taken from the jail to the court in an open wagon for all to see. Mrs. Schaeffer objected to this practice because of the damage it could do to the reputations of women who might subsequently be found to be innocent by the court. She worked with the Department and in quick time was able to change this practice and walk her prisoners to the court instead. Mrs. Schaeffer took pride that no prisoner whom she escorted ever attempted to escape. Her promptings to the Department further led to the purchase of a covered Black Maria for prisoner transport.

Mrs. Schaeffer was known by all as a kind and compassionate woman who was also no pushover. Like many Police Matrons of her day, she was optimistic about the ability of some criminals to reform and realistic about the terrible impact of their crimes upon their victims. If she felt that a woman could successfully re-enter society after her release, she followed up and helped her to find a job. The walls of Mrs. Schaeffer’s suite at the City Jail were covered with the wedding pictures of women she had helped and many of them visited her later to introduce their babies and celebrate other milestones in their lives.

Mrs Schaeffer retired from the Minneapolis Police Department during Mayor Leach’s term, in 1927. She was honored by him and by Police Superintendent Frank Brunskill along with a host of county and federal judges, districts attorney, civic and business leaders and various members of the Minneapolis Police Department at a banquet. On this occasion, Mayor Leach said to her “I want to thank you for the service you have rendered the community and humanity in general”. Detective Thomas P. Gleason recited a poem that he had written in her honor.

A fund of $8000 had been subscribed and invested for her and part of the money was used to purchase what Mrs Schaeffer referred to as her “cottage” where she intended to spend her time tending her flowers.

Sixteen years later, funeral services for Mrs. Schaeffer were held at her beloved home at 3223 Portland Avenue South. She was buried at Lakewood Cemetery on the afternoon of April 16, 1943 with family and friends in attendance.

Mrs. Schaeffer’s cherished home still stands today as the well-restored Bridgham House B&B.

We were fortunate this week to visit with Retired Officer Robert Huber to learn about the MPD’s early computer systems and hear about an interesting computer-crime investigation of his which made headlines both in Minneapolis and nationally.

Office Huber was studying at what was then St. Thomas College (now University) in a pre-med program when friends of his persuaded him to join them at the Minneapolis Police Department. He had always been good at mathematics and so when the Department gave him the opportunity through the Law Enforcement Educational Program to go back to college he resumed his education part-time focusing on mathematics and computer languages.

Officer Huber was known around the Department as someone who understood computing. In 1979, the Deputy Chief in charge of Technology tapped Officer Huber to work on a new initiative called the Integrated Criminal Apprehension Program or ICAP. The idea behind ICAP was to use data about crime such as time of day, location, type of crime, perpetrator behaviors to quickly understand and address crime trends.

After this, Officer Huber went on to help develop a Computer-Aided Crime Analysis and Reporting System which gave the Department the distinction of being only the second police force in the nation to leverage computer systems for crime analysis. With the work of Officer Huber, the Department was able to replace its manual pin-map system with a digitized map system employing elements of predictive analysis.

Before November 31, 1982, if you had an emergency, you would open up your telephone book to find the number for the Minneapolis Police Department, The Minneapolis Fire Department or an ambulance and then call the appropriate seven-digit number for your particular emergency.

The Minneapolis Police Department was the first Department in the nation to make the move to a 911 system and Officer Huber worked on the integration of the 911 system with a computer-aided dispatch system.

Officer Huber was fortunate to be asked by the FBI to join its computer-crime course at their Academy in Quantico, Virginia. He brought his new knowledge back to the Department and used it to help solve computer-crimes.

In 1985, Time Magazine told the story of an interesting computer-crime case that Officer Robert Huber worked on.

They wrote:

“Peggy Leppik will never forget the day in 1983 when she opened the door of her house in suburban Golden Valley, Minnesota and found three Minneapolis police detectives waiting outside. Someone with a home computer and modem had tapped into the computer of a Minneapolis bank by telephone and police had traced the calls to her 14-year-old son Peter. “My heart stopped,” she says. “But I was confident from the beginning that he hadn’t done anything malicious. I have lots of faith and trust in Peter.” No charges were filed against Leppik and his mother’s faith was dramatically rewarded last week when his latest exploits brought strangers of another sort to her door: reporters and camera crews eager to learn how the precocious lad, now 15, had become a hacker hero, helping the Minneapolis police in a case against a suspected child molester.

Last month a 37-year-old Minneapolis computer programmer was arrested on charges of sexual misconduct with a 13-year-old boy. In the man’s home, police found a Tandy RadioShack TRS 80 Model III computer and several dozen floppy disks, which they suspected might contain incriminating evidence. The suspect, however, had locked his disks with a special software program. Only someone who knew his six letter password, which he refused to reveal, could read the information they contained.

The police department’s resident computer expert Officer Robert Huber was not familiar with the RadioShack computer system, but knew someone who might be: Peter Leppik, whom he had met during the bank escapade and since befriended. “After all the unfavorable stories about computer kids”, says Huber, “it seems like an ideal time to have a younger person like Peter do something positive for the community”.

The police drove Leppik to a nearby RadioShack store, which had offered the use of one of its machines. It took him less than a half an hour to familiarize himself with the TRS 80 disk operating system, the master program that tells the computer how to store and retrieve data. Said Leppik, “I realized right away that there was no way I could get the password by trying to guess that so I had to find a way around it”. After loading the data from an operating system disk (used for housekeeping chores as making backup copies of valuable disks) into the computer he placed a disk belonging to the suspect in one of the machine’s disk drives and a blank disc in the other. He then called up the operating system’s menu which lists on the screen all of the commands the system responds to. One after another he typed the command into the computer. When he typed BACKUP the computer responded by asking for the unknown password. The same thing happened when he typed COPY.”

Finally Leppik tried CONVERT a program that RadioShack distributed in 1982 when it introduced a new version of its operating system. It converts files written under the old version to the format used by the new one. But as Leppik discovered, RadioShack had neglected to build into CONVERT the password protection feature. As a result, at the command CONVERT, the computer whirred obediently, picking up the data from the locked disk and transferring it in the new format to a blank disk. From there, Leppik was able to retrieve it and display it on the screen. Only 45 minutes had elapsed from the time he entered the store.

The content of the first suspect disk turned out to be a diary containing page after page of sex-related material that included male first names, general locations and descriptions of sex acts written in graphic detail. If the accounts on the disk prove to be fact, not fantasy, police will use them to bring additional charges against the suspect. Leppik meanwhile is trying to keep things in perspective and not get a swelled head. Says he, “I’m still doing the dishes and making my own bed.”

This story was also featured in US Magazine.

This was just one of the many interesting cases in the exciting career of Officer Robert Huber.

The Minneapolis Police Museum wishes to thank Retired Officer Robert Huber for the opportunity to interview him and for the use of the photographs in this story.

You may recall this photograph of Officer Harold Cronquist helping with the school patrol from a previous post.

Officer Cronquist’s two daughters, Lynn and Gail, followed in his footsteps to become officers of the MPD.

Recently, Retired Officer Lynn Cronquist shared a previously-unseen photograph of her father in civilian clothes. It was taken between 1949 and 1950 when he was in Rookie School.

You will note that Officer Cronquist was a sharp-dresser!

Officer Harold Cronquist was well respected and well liked by colleagues and community members. When people who knew him speak of him today they remember him as a great officer and the kind of person they enjoyed being around.

Photograph of the late MPD Officer Harold Cronquist courtesy of his daughter Retired MPD Officer Lynn Cronquist

On this day in 1921, the Minneapolis Morning Tribune reported that Fred Rabinowsky, a box car robbery suspect arrested by Detective Joseph Berry (pictured above), was charged with grand larceny for the theft of five cases of shoes from a Great Northern Railroad freight car.

The man was taken in custody in the Gateway District and when searched was carrying a skeleton key, a file, and a private detective’s badge. He admitted the theft of the five cases of shoes to Detective Berry and led him to a place on the Mississippi River bank where the shoes were hidden.

When the hiding place was searched the discovery was made, according to the arrest report, that three of the five cases of shoes had already been stolen by a man in whom Rabinowsky had confided details of the robbery.

Photograph of Detective Joseph Berry taken in 1922 and shown courtesy of Hennepin County Library

For your knowledge and enjoyment, here is a description of the structure of the Minneapolis Police Department from the Annual Edition of the Minneapolis Tribune on January 1, 1890.

The Police Department

The Personnel of the Minneapolis Police Force

“The Police Department of Minneapolis is composed of exactly 200 men, and is as good a department as any city could wish for. The department is under the immediate charge of Superintendent W.M. Brackett, while it is controlled by the police commission composed of Mayor E.C. Babb, W.R. Guile and and N.H. Gjersten. This body has the power of appointing and dismissing men, fixing salaries and other miscellaneous business.

The city is divided into five precincts, to each one of which, with the exception of the Fifth, are assigned a captain, lieutenant, and three sergeants and a detail of men. At the Fifth Precinct there are two sergeants and a detail of man.

The First Precinct embraces the territory bounded by First Avenue North and Eighth Avenue South and the river and Twentieth Street. This is under the charge of Captain D.A. Day, with Lieutenant Thomas Coskran, Sergeants John Leonard, A.H. Volk, and S.A. Kirkham and a detail of 49 men under him. There are also two patrol drivers and two jailers.

The Second Precinct consists of the territory on the east side of the river, and the force consists of Captain William Bosworth, Lieutenant J.S.J. Bean, Sergeants P. Kennedy, William Dunn and Warner Breushaber and a detail of 26 men.

The Third Precinct embraces the territory south of Eighth Avenue South and the force consists of Captain Lewis Ness, Lieutenant Swan Walton, Sergeants Patrick Fox, Henry Krumweide, and W.S. Foster, two patrol drivers and two jailers.

The Fourth Precinct embraces the territory north of First Avenue North. The force here consists of Captain Martin Buerfening, Lieutenant Thomas Nelson, Sergeants John Kennedy, John Norman and James Allen, 24 patrolman, two patrol drivers and two jailers.

The Fifth Precinct embraces the outskirts of the city. The force here consists of Mounted Sergeants F.E. Coffin, Sergeant Charles N. Gustafson, 5 patrolmen and 15 mounted officers. This force is particularly useful in preventing the depredations common in this thinly-settled part of the city.

The force in the difference precincts are divided into three watches, as they are called, each under a sergeant. The day force goes on duty at 7 AM and off at 6 PM. The “6 o’clock watch” then goes on and serves until 4 AM when it goes off duty. The third or “9 o’clock watch” goes on duty at 9 PM and serves until 7 AM when it is relieved by the day force. By this arrangement two-thirds of the police force are on duty from 9 o’clock at night until 4 o’clock in the morning, the time when there is a greater liability for burglaries and other crimes. These watches alternate each month, and during the year each man serves four months on day duty and eight months on night duty. During the day the captain of each precinct is in command of the station, while at night the lieutenant is the commanding officer. Superintendent Brackett is present at police headquarters during the day, while at night the entire force is under the command of Captain Jacob Hein who acts as assistant superintendent. Each night there is a detail of from 4 to 6 men from the day force who are held at the Central Station as a night reserve. The men sleep at the station and are only called upon in case of a fire. In addition to this force there are six inspectors, one license inspector, one sidewalk inspector, one secretary to the superintendent, two clerks, three telephone operators, two janitors, one police matron, Mrs. Paine, and four court officers, all detailed from the regular police force.

At present prisoners are kept at only the First, Third and Fifth Precinct police stations, the Second and Fourth not being provided with jail facilities. All women who are arrested are brought at once to the Central Station and turned over to the care of Mrs. Paine, the police matron. Dr. R.D. Match is police surgeon.

There are 17 patrol boxes, where officers report by telephone at stated times to police headquarters, where a record is kept of the time and place where each man reports. Each man has a stated beat, while the sergeant of each watch makes the rounds of the precinct to see that all men are at their beats.

The total expense of the police department from January 1, 1889 to January 1, 1890 was $193,321.55. The number of arrests made during the year as of December 28 was 6,154.”

From the Minneapolis Tribune Annual Edition of January 1, 1890

Patrolman George W. Benzick looks happy as he watches the action during the game between the University of Minnesota Gophers and the Purdue University Boilermakers at Memorial Stadium on Saturday, October 13, 1928.

Patrolman Benzick was an officer in the Second Precinct and was on duty at the stadium.

The Gophers, with the help of Bronko Nagurski, won the game that day 15-0.

Photograph from the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune of Sunday, October 14, 1928

Yesterday, we shared the story of the tragic accident in the Grand Tetons and the Carnegie Medal awarded to Officer Ronald Ottoson for his bravery in trying to save the lives of Luis Ybarrondo and Wayne A. Creek.

Today, we are honored to share more materials including photographs, letters, and newspaper articles from the time of the tragedy, along with the memories of Retired Minneapolis Police Officer Ronald Ottoson.

In the words of Retired Officer Ottoson:

“When Officer James Hovda and I came upon the watery cavern, members of the first party were standing by it and informed us there was one climber dead at the bottom of the waterfalls. The cavern was located below a small drop-off or ridge and was not visible from above. Both of us realized another climbing party of four was coming down the mountain behind us.

Officer Hovda immediately climbed back up the mountain and began yelling for the parties to stop and in doing so saved the lives of two of the four.

I stood by the top of the drop off and saw Wayne Creek come tumbling over the ridge and into the cavern.

A few seconds later Luis Ybarrondo came over the ridge and fell into the hole.

Standing upon the ledge I was not able to see the bottom, which was approximately 30 feet deep and bent underneath and out of site”.

The Minneapolis Star interviewed Officers Ottoson and Hovda upon their return to Minneapolis in June of 1971.

Howard Chapman, Superintendent of the Grand Teton National Park, wrote to Minneapolis Police Chief Gordon Johnson commending the actions of Officers Ottoson and Hovda.

Here is additional information about the tragedy from the Resume of Officer Ottoson:

Here is a photograph of Officer Ottoson near the entrance to the cavern after he emerged following the rescue attempt.

In the photograph below, the Park Rangers carefully bear one of the bodies down to the base camp.

Officers Ottoson and Hovda were recognized for their bravery in the rescue attempt by the American Red Cross. They received their honors in a special presentation at the 1971 Convention of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association as reported by the Minneapolis StarTribune.

The Minneapolis Police Museum is proud of Retired Officers Ottoson and Hovda for the good they did on that terrible day.

We remember Luis Ybarrando and Wayne A. Creek and offer their families our heartfelt condolences.

The Minneapolis Police Museum is grateful to Retired Officers Ronald Ottoson and James Hovda for sharing their memories, photographs, letters, and newspaper articles from the time of the tragedy with us.

On June 19, 1971, 30 year-old Minneapolis Police Officer Ronald Ottoson attempted to save Luis Ybarrondo and Wayne A. Creek from drowning.

In the words of Chief Park Ranger Frank Betts, the accident that day at Grand Teton National Park was the worst in its long history.

On that day, several teams had signed up to climb the 10,500 foot Symmetry Spire. As the first team made its descent glissading down the steep mountain, 28 year-old climber Robert Deal tumbled into a partially-hidden water-filled snow cavern. His fellow climber Richard DaBell attempted to save him by lowering himself into the cavern by rope as did William Radtke but they were unable to reach Mr. Deal in time and he perished.

Minneapolis Police Officer Ronald Ottoson was in the second team which had halted at the ledge of the snow cavern and shouted out to the party behind them to halt.

Tragically, nine-year-old Luis Ybarrando and 36-year-old Wayne Creek could not stop and slid down into the crevasse. Officer Ottoson threw a rope coil into the darkness and, after feeling nobody tug on the rope, rappelled 20 feet down into the hole to find the two climbers tightly buried in snow up to their necks with icy water from a nearby snow-dammed stream filling the cave.

Despite Officer Ottoson’s heroic efforts to pull them to safety, the child Luis and Mr. Creek both drowned.

An attempt to recover the three bodies was made that evening by the Park’s Rescue team led by Ranger Bob Irvine but the night was too dark.

A recovery team of 12 members arrived the next morning. District Ranger Tom Milligan dropped into the narrow, slushy moat. The dammed-up water had drained overnight, such that two of the dead climbers were visible.

Despite harrowing conditions including the icy torrent falling from above, Milligan was able to attach a nylon sling to one victim. Other rescuers engineered a rope system to pull the body to the surface. On the next day of the operation, the team was able to recover a second body using the same technique. The technique was very dangerous however and so on the third day they devised a different technique which used water power to free the last body.

On July 12, 1971 Officer Ottoson and his colleague Minneapolis Police Officer James Hovda, who had also been there on the mountain, wrote in appreciation of the Park Rangers to the Secretary of the Interior Rogers C. B. Morton.

Officers Ottoson and Hovda wrote:

“It is a credit to yourself and to our National Parks system that such high caliber personnel staff these areas. We wish to express our sincere appreciation for being able to witness their very inspiring team while operating on a mountain rescue mission”.

Officer Ottoson was honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission for his heroism.

The Carnegie Hero Fund Commission awards the Carnegie Medal to individuals in the United States and Canada who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree saving or attempting to save the lives of others. To learn more about the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission: https://www.carnegiehero.org/

The Minneapolis Police Museum is grateful to Retired Minneapolis Police Officers Ronald Ottoson and James Hovda for sharing this story.

Retired MPD Sergeant David Niebur recently shared a link with us to the documentary film of Minneapolis’ Skid Row shot by John Bacich in the late 1950s and early 1960s on a Bell & Howell 16 mm movie camera.

The still image above from Mr. Bacich’s film shows the 1962 version of the tan and brown MPD summer uniform before the addition of the All American City patch in 1963.

Here is a link to Mr. Bacich’s film, Skidrow: https://kingofskidrow.com/skidrow-film?fbclid=IwAR0bV-Jpd4YMxXETCv-vTeEN0KBmeisb3nvPEjiGk5ZEBBjPCHkXYFfQjM4

Please note that the film includes some graphic images and represents Mr. Bacich’s perspective as a Skid Row bar owner.

The Minneapolis Police Museum thanks Retired Sergeant David Niebur

The Minneapolis Park Police Department (MPPD) was founded in 1887.

MPPD uniforms were issued approximately one year later in 1888.

Until 1905, the MPPD uniforms were grey in color. After 1905, their color was changed to blue. They were identical to the MPD uniform in every aspect but their buttons.

The rare button shown above is one that was worn on the blue MPPD uniform.

The photograph below shows MPPD Office John Joseph Mueller in the blue uniform circa 1905.

Research and photographs courtesy of Retired MPD Sergeant David Niebur.